Stede Bonnet

Stede Bonnet (1688-10 December 1718) was a Barbadian pirate who was captain of the sloop "Royal James" during the early 1700s. Becoming a pirate under the feared pirate Edward Thatch, also called "Blackbeard", Bonnet was initially inexperienced, but gained a reputation for his politeness, gaining him the nickname "The Gentleman Pirate". Bonnet's area of operations was the east coast of the Thirteen Colonies (present-day United States). He was later captured by the British on the Cape Fear River and hung in Charles-Towne.

Biography
Bonnet was born in Bridgetown, Barbados, and formerly served as a Major in the British Militia on the island; he later became a merchant captain. A joyous and plump man, Bonnet was unlikely to become a pirate. He met Captain Edward Kenway in 1715, taking him to Havana aboard his merchant ship, which had crashed on Cat Island. Bonnet's sugar was stolen by Governor Laureano Torres y Ayala, the Spanish ruler of the island of Cuba. Bonnet's sugar was held in the fort, losing him a great deal of money. His association with Kenway would be one of the reasons why he turned to piracy.

In 1717, despite having no experience with commanding a warship, Bonnet decided to turn to piracy. He served under the infamous Edward Thatch, who called himself "Blackbeard", but later on he was dropped from his crew for inexperience. He decided to become an independent pirate, buying the sloop "Revenge" from a port (rather than seizing it as was tradition). As a pirate captain, he was far from traditional: he paid his crew wages rather than shared plunder; he relied on his quartermaster to use his expertise on naval matters to pilot his ship; and he was also lenient to captured sailors.

Bonnet started his career by attacking British shipping in the Chesapeake Bay. He captured and plundered four British ships and burnt a Barbadian ship to prevent news of the attacks from reaching home. Bonnet raided New York later in 1717, taking two ships, and he went up and down the Thirteen Colonies' east coast, plundering merchant ships as he went. In September 1717, while heading for the Nassau Republic (a pirate haven), his ship was heavily-damaged in a fight with a Spanish man-of-war but when he reached the island he refitted his ship and recruited a new crew.

In 1718 he accepted a pardon from Governor Woodes Rogers and renamed the "Revenge" to "Royal James", a reference to the Jacobite pretender James Francis Edward Stuart. In August 1718, while pirating on the Cape Fear River of North Carolina, he was captured in a fight with by HMS Henry, captained by William Rhett. He escaped, but was recaptured, and on 10 November 1718 he was sentenced to death. Bonnet was executed by hanging for the crime of piracy.